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Low-Light Settings for Shooting Child
I am trying to take pictures of my 1-year-old with my Nikon D70. I am trying to use window lighting with no flash, but the shutter speed is too slow and she is so quick that all my pictures are blurry. Thanks for any suggestions.
February 11, 2005
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kathy stephens |
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Allson,
My first suggestion would be to bump up your ISO to about 800 and possibly set the camera on a monopod. It would move around with her as she moves MUCH better than a tri-pod and can be easily adjusted very low to the floor so that you can sit down. On the D70, you can also move your setting to the low-light setting on the top, which looks like a building with a moonlight shining over it. That setting works nicely too. Try those things and see if that doesn't help.
February 11, 2005
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Michael H. Cothran |
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I'd avoid increasing the ISO too much, as all you're doing is adding noise and image degradation. Try moving your child as close to the window as possible, where your light level will obviously be brighter. Then maybe find a bigger window also.
Michael H. Cothran
www.mhcphoto.net
February 11, 2005
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Andres Llopart |
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I will suggest using a fast lens. I don't know if you are already using one (since you haven't mentioned), but a prime lens with an aperture of f/1.8 ($70) or even better a f/1.4 ($250 it is worth the money) will help you a lot. I use it a lot to take pictures of my sisters new born with a 50mm f/1.4 and using a ISO 200 or 400.
February 15, 2005
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Andres Llopart |
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Eric
Andres Llopart
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I will suggest using a fast lens. I don't know if you are already using one (since you haven't mentioned), but a prime lens with an aperture of f/1.8 ($70) or even better a f/1.4 ($250 it is worth the money) will help you a lot. I use it a lot to take pictures of my sisters new born with a 50mm f/1.4 and using a ISO 200 or 400.
February 15, 2005
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Katie Lorenz |
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Allison
I often use natural window lighting when shooting wedding portraits and I have found that setting my camera to 1/30 at 5.6 works pretty consistently. Usually my subjects are not moving but I have photographed my very active kitten in front of a window with these settings and had excent results.
February 17, 2005
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Sreedevi Kashi |
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I know you want the natural look of window lighting, but maybe you could use a separate flash unit with a sock or something like that over the bulb and use the flash as a fill flash. The only thing is, it may take a little bit of experimenting for you, unless you have a light meter. You want to have your flash give you an f/stop reading that's the same as the ambient reading of what your scene says your f/stop should be at your chosen shutter speed. I just think this would be easier to do with your child running around. And you'll still get that natural look to your shot.
February 19, 2005
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